There's a problem with your browser or settings.

Your browser or your browser's settings are not supported. To get the best experience possible, please download a compatible browser. If you know your browser is up to date, you should check to ensure that
javascript is enabled.

Landsat's 40 Years: American Landscapes

About the Images

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the United States' Earth-observing Landsat program, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey selected six out of 172 submissions from the American public and created customized Landsat chronicles of changing local landscapes.

Arizona's capital of Phoenix and its neighboring towns in Maricopa County have undergone a major population boom in the last 40 years. The boom's effects are seen in everything from the expansion of town and cities to an increased demand for fresh water.

The landforms of southern Louisiana have been shaped by the wanderings of the lower Mississippi River but with modern engineering of where the river flows, the salt marshes of the Chénier Plain are in a losing battle against the open ocean eroding the coastline. Mr. Brent Yantis and Dr. Whitney Broussard are interested in telling the story of the changing coastline.

Much of Lee County Florida's unique landscape of coastal mangroves, marshes, cypress forests, and upland pine flat woods and prairies have been replaced by homes, roads and new bodies of water that are being used by industry.

The Nebraska Sandhills region is one of the largest areas of mostly intact grassland ecosystems in the country. The spread of center-pivot irrigation systems has led to agriculture taking over the landscape.

The forests of Northern Colorado have gone through many changes driven by both natural and human causes. In particular the region has seen the dynamic changes to the forest caused by mountain pine bark beetles.